Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 273: Fighting in the Raging Sea (5)
At present, in this sub-battlefield, only the Aprak is still fighting the beast. Under the siege of four Chinese warships, the end of the Aprak is approaching.This warship has already begun to turn, and its purpose is very clear, which is to rush out of the water between Fuyuan and Weiyuan.

"My lord, it looks like the enemy ship is going to flee." The first officer reminded Xiang Zhongjie in time.

"Run? It's not that easy. Order all the formations to aim their guns at this warship, and fire when it just accelerates. Be sure to sink it!" Xiang Zhongjie said coldly.

"Yes."

All of a sudden, thousands of guns were fired, and 5-inch to 7-inch shells poured down on the Aprak like raindrops. The warship suddenly burst into flames, and the steel armor near the waterline was beaten into a honeycomb shape. Frantically pouring into each cabin, the captain of the Aprak sat in the command room blankly, crossing his chest with his right hand blankly.In less than 10 minutes, the sea water had submerged the horizontal deck. Only the tall watchtower in the front of the bow was still on the water. , Dozens of Russian sailors on the sea were struggling to swim, trying to board a lifeboat or climb onto something like a plank.

"Order the machine gunners to straf the enemy soldiers at sea, so that no one will be left alive!" Xiang Zhongjie's eyes shot out two frightening rays of light.

"Yes!"

Under the frantic fire of machine guns, the sea was soon stained red by the blood of the Russian sailors, and there were dead bodies and fragments of the Aprak floating in a mess on the water.

The battle on the battlefield is finally over.In fact, during the one-hour battle, the Fuyuan formation suffered a lot of losses. In particular, the Ganjiang was hit with more than fifteen rounds, and twelve rounds exploded inside the hull. The secondary gun that was lost in the middle was less than 30% of the firepower of the Ganjiang, and 4 shells penetrated the waterline armor. The water intake on the port side exceeded 500 tons. In order to maintain balance, at least 200 tons of water must be injected into the starboard side. Ton, luckily the battle was drawing to a close by this time.Xiang Zhongjie immediately ordered Luyuan to assist in the rescue of Ganjiang. Luyuan hooked the hull of Ganjiang with eight iron chains. When Ganjiang only injected 200 tons of water to the starboard side, it used its own weight to help Ganjiang. Jiang barely regained its balance, and then with the efforts of the damage control team members of Ganjiang, it barely blocked the three large water inlets, and discharged 3 tons of seawater on the port side, without completely losing its self-propelled ability. , Ganjiang barely maintained its combat effectiveness.Under Xiang Zhongjie's order, the Ganjiang turned right and left the battlefield. For the captain of the Ganjiang, Lu Zhonglin, not being able to participate in the subsequent battle was more uncomfortable than killing him.

"Order Fuyuan, Weiyuan, and Luyuan to sail to the southwest at a speed of 17 knots, and immediately enter the main battlefield." Xiang Zhongjie gave an order, and the three Fuyuan ships quickly completed their turn, heading towards the main battlefield at a speed of 17 knots. side to kill.

On the main battlefield, the total tonnage of warships of all parties exceeded 9 tons, and the intensity of the battle far exceeded that of the western waters.The coastal defense fleet Xiangjiang, Taipei, and Jinsha were on fire, and their hulls had tilted significantly. If they continued to fight, they might capsize. Even the battleship Ningyuan was riddled with holes.However, due to the large tonnage of the two Zhonghua-class warships, their maneuverability and flexibility are relatively poor, so they had to stay in the open sea and use the power of heavy artillery to attack the enemy ships from a long distance. Any warship in the world is daunting.

In contrast, the losses of the Far East Fleet were much greater. Three main cruisers, eleven gunboats, and six torpedo ships were sunk successively. Cheap, lost a main gun and three auxiliary guns, and two fires broke out on the rear deck. Although they were all extinguished in time, countless sailors were burned to death.The Supreme Commander Wakqin was furious. The strength of the Chinese navy far exceeded his imagination. Moreover, from the moment the battle began, the Far East Fleet has been under pressure from the opponent, and has never found a good point of attack. Especially after learning that all his fleet formations had been destroyed, his originally high mood suddenly fell down. You must know that those four warships are the main force of the fleet, and the fleet will rely on them to disrupt the enemy's formation. Now these wishful thinking Completely lost.The destruction of this formation has greatly reduced the mobility of the Far East Fleet, which was not strong at all. Now there is only a desperate and powerful coastal defense fleet to attack.

Judging from the current power comparison, with the destruction of the Angara formation, the strength and mobility advantages of the Far East Fleet disappeared.In the coastal defense fleet, only the Ganjiang was severely damaged and withdrew from the battlefield. Among the other warships, the three Xiangjiang suffered heavy damage and lost more than half of their combat effectiveness, but they were still able to barely participate in the battle.Weiyuan and Luyuan each lost a secondary gun, Fuyuan lost two (one on the stern and one on the port side), and Minjiang lost a 5-inch gun on the port side and a 120mm secondary gun However, the Xiangjiang lost a 120mm secondary gun. Calculated in this way, the coastal defense fleet still has more than 40 naval guns above 120mm. Cannons, the Zhonghua-class warships did not suffer any losses at all because they were far away from the battlefield, and the coastal defense fleet still had at least 7% of the shells, enough to deal with an hour of high-intensity naval battles.Although the Far East Fleet still retains three large cruisers with a full load displacement of more than 4 tons, and their armor protection capabilities are much stronger than any warship in the Angara formation, the problem is that the artillery speed of these three large cruisers is relatively fast. Low, that is to say, if the naval battle continues for another hour, the 3-inch naval gun of the Yuanzi warship can fire at least hundreds of shells per minute, while the three Russian warships can only fire 6000 rounds per minute, unless Wacker Qin is confident that the hit rate of the entire fleet will be increased by more than ten times.

At this time, after Lin Jianzhang finished encircling and suppressing the Angara formation, he changed the linear formation and asked Xiang Zhongjie to lead the Fuyuan, Luyuan, Xiangjiang, Minjiang, and Jinsha as the right wing, while he personally led the Wei Yuan, Ningyuan, Ganjiang, Taipei, and Haitian are the left-wing detachments, which use pincer tactics to outflank the main formation of the Far East Fleet.

Lin Jianzhang's purpose is very clear, that is to use the existing force advantage to kill and damage the enemy's remaining cruisers as much as possible, but without forming a closed door to fight dogs, so as to prevent the Far East Fleet from seeing that there is no hope of escape and desperately counterattack, although from the perspective of combat effectiveness , the coastal defense fleet is in an advantage, and this advantage is not small, but as the saying goes, if you kill the enemy three thousand, you will lose eight hundred. If Lin Jianzhang leaves two or three cruisers in the due east direction to face the enemy ships in a pocket formation, then The Far East Fleet may fight to the death, and I am afraid that the Chinese warships will also be severely damaged at that time. This is what Lin Jianzhang does not want to see.From a tactical point of view, such an arrangement does not affect the firepower of one's own fleet. However, for the Far East Fleet, this is fatal. The front main guns of many Russian warships cannot be rotated, except of course the main guns of the flagship Alexander. At the stern.

In addition, unless the Far East Fleet turns around, most of the main guns of the entire fleet will basically not play much role, and the other firepower except Alexander, Nikolai and the other five main cruisers have main guns of more than 240mm , the others are basically 120mm secondary guns, and it has been proved in the previous naval battles that the 120mm secondary guns are not very effective in the face of the large tonnage and thick armored Chinese fleet. Warships can also be hit with about 10 rounds of 120mm shells, and the Far East Fleet, which has most of its main guns on both sides, can only concentrate half of its firepower during the entire process.

Seeing that the Chinese had made adjustments to the formation, Vakchen also quickly arranged the Far East Fleet into a wedge formation, getting rid of the original dual-core lineup of the Alexander and the Nikolai, and changing it to the Alexander as the absolute core. The La, Campton, Cardinal, Torch, Pegasus, Leander, Rambler, and Swift are placed on the two wings respectively, and the large and small gunboats and torpedo ships are placed in front of the main lineup. The intention is also very obvious, that is to sacrifice the weakly armored gunboats and torpedo ships, and concentrate the firepower of the whole team, hoping to cause a powerful blow to the enemy's capital ship.

At this time, the fleets of both sides approached about 6000 meters, and the 280mm main gun on the Alexander opened fire.This world-class naval gun designed by the Frenchman Bai Laoyi is indeed amazing when it fires. The thick smoke when the single turret shoots almost envelopes the entire capital of the Alexander. The hull trembled a bit.Three shells fell into the water about 500 meters away from the Weiyuan with the sound of piercing the air. The violent explosion stirred up a column of water that soared into the sky. Lin Jianzhang could even see the huge shell flying in the air with the naked eye The black trail drawn by the projectile in the air.

"Master Lin, the enemy is firing, what should we do?" Miao Changqing asked Lin Jianzhang for instructions.

"Don't worry, wait a little longer." Lin Jianzhang squinted his eyes at the approaching enemy ships, and listened carefully to the data reported by the observers.

The distance between the two fleets was shortened to 4000 meters, and the Russian Swift also started a tentative bombardment, but at this distance, needless to say, the hit rate, even if it hit the Swift, the damage of the 160mm shell was limited.

At 3500 meters, Lin Jianzhang gave an order, and the main guns on the Yuanzi-class battleship spewed out flames together, pouring shells rhythmically at the enemy ship.

At 3000 meters, Lin Jianzhang ordered the entire fleet to slow down and turn to maintain an effective fire control distance with the enemy ship. At the same time, the artillery fire from both sides became more and more intensive. covered up.

(End of this chapter)